NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
A3
Eagle file photo
Sen. Ron Wyden speaks during a town hall meeting in the Prairie
City School gym in 2018.
EO Media Group/Ronald Bond
The Lighthouse Pentecostal Church, Island City, is the source of the COVID-19 outbreak in Union County, according to the Oregon
Health Authority. The county’s total number of cases was 282 Tuesday, giving it the most per capita in Oregon.
Union County commissioners recommend going back
to phase one after church-linked COVID-19 outbreak
By Sabrina Thompson
EO Media Group
Union County commissioners voted
June 17 to recommend rolling back
to phase one COVID-19 reopening
guidelines.
The move comes as the county is
the state’s hotspot for the coronavirus
with 240 confirmed cases as of June 16,
according to the Oregon Health Author-
ity, and at least 236 of those stemming
from members of the Lighthouse Pente-
costal Church, Island City.
In the week since, the Oregon Health
Authority has confirmed another 42
cases to bring the county total to 282
cases as of June 23.
The board of commissioners met via
an internet call to address the communi-
ty’s concerns about the outbreak. Mem-
bers of the Center for Human Develop-
ment, the Union County Sheriff’s Office,
La Grande Police Department and the
Incident Management Team’s J.B. Brock
sat in on the meeting to provide further
information and recommendations. In
addition to recommending the roll back
to phase one, commissioners voted to
recommend wearing masks.
The two motions are only recommen-
dations. Commissioner Matt Scarfo said
the board is looking into what power
it has to enforce and regulate the more
restrictive reopening guidelines and
mask use. Commissioner Donna Bever-
age said she would rather trust residents
to voluntary enact phase one guidelines.
The county, like most of Oregon, had
moved into phase two reopening earlier
this month.
The state’s phase one guidelines
generally call for facilities like the-
aters, public pools and bowling alleys
to remain closed, bars and restaurants to
end on-site consumption at 10 p.m., and
limit gatherings of people to 25.
La Grande Police Chief Gary Bell
and Sheriff Boyd Rasmussen confirmed
there will be no formal enforcement of
guidelines.
“I know some would like to see
us take more heavy handed enforce-
ment action, but it is really difficult at
this time,” Bell said. “These are good
people.”
The two top local law enforcement
officers said their agencies will continue
to look into complaints about people not
following guidelines and make recom-
mendations to those who don’t to recon-
sider their actions to keep the commu-
nity safe.
“I think we are prepared as any com-
munity to deal with this,” Rasmussen
said. “We were put on the map with how
this has happened, and we are on the map
on how we are going to handle this.”
Public Health Administrator Carrie
Brogoitti said what happens next in the
county depends on every member of the
community stepping up.
“We don’t have a reliable treatment or
vaccine,” she said. “So the tools we have
to use are the preventative measures.”
Eastern Oregon leaders talk about state
deficit and frustrations on special session
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
State Reps. Mark Owens,
R-Crane, and Daniel Bon-
ham, R-The Dalles, and state
Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale,
gathered together for their
fifth town hall to talk about
developments that have
happened in phase two of
reopening, their thoughts on
the upcoming special ses-
sion and education.
During the virtual town
hall, Findley shared his
thoughts on the $2.7 billion
deficit the state budget is
facing and the growing need
to address the hole.
“We continue to ignore,
for the most part, the state
budget and the hole that
we’re in, and the co-chairs
of the joint committees and
ways of means have done
some work, but we’ve yet to
put it in font of the legisla-
tors,” Findley said.
Findley added that a spe-
cial session will take place
this week and focus primar-
ily on policy bills.
Owens said he was frus-
trated that
the session
will not deal
with bud-
get issues as
the deficit
grows.
Rep. Mark
“I know
Owens,
the call to
R-Crane
action from
the
gov-
ernor was to talk about
police accountability and
COVID-19,” Owens said.
“With police accountabil-
ity, there’s a lot of things
there that have been tried
through the Senate and the
House before like arbitra-
tion that are very positive,
but I do have a little concern
that what came out today on
police accountability was a
big, ominous bill.”
Owens said the bill
asks for everything when
the conversation should
be directed to individual
aspects of police account-
ability. It has things people
will and won’t support and
things that are questionable
that convolutes the conver-
sation, according to Owens.
Owens said he believes
that most school districts in
House District 60 will work
toward in-class sessions.
“I believe the over-
whelming majority of par-
ents and students want
kids to go back to brick
and mortar. That’s where
most excel,” Owens said.
“COVID-19 is not affecting
children near as much as it
affects our elderly.”
Owens added that clubs
and choirs will be under the
same guidelines as schools.
Owens and Findley sent
a letter to Gov. Brown for
the “Let Them Play” initia-
tive. Owens said sports will
be tougher and that non-
contact sports are currently
allowed, but the guidelines
are difficult. He said there is
a conversation going around
to have baseball and track
in fall while allowing foot-
ball and volleyball in the
spring.
“We need to allow our
kids to do our clubs, our
athletics and get them back
into that building,” Owens
said.
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Sen. Ron Wyden’s virtual
town hall on June 22 provided
an opportunity for residents
from Grant, Baker, Harney
and Malheur counties to ask
questions on current events
and their concerns.
Beth Spell of John Day, a
Democrat who is running for
the Oregon House of Rep-
resentatives for District 60,
asked the first question.
She began her question
by telling Wyden that with
the overwhelming polariza-
tion on current topics, such
as COVID-19, Black Lives
Matter and political differ-
ences, people cannot meet in
the middle and talk about the
issues weighing them down.
She asked what people can
do to bring the conversations
back to middle ground.
Wyden highlighted the
importance of the “Oregon
Way,” a history of bipartisan
work from widely respected
Republicans and Democrats.
“We’re all in this together,”
Wyden said. “Whether it’s my
work for ranchers on (Pay-
ments in Lieu of Taxes), for
(Secure Rural School Act)
for our communities that are
heavily forested. Now what
I’m trying to do in terms of the
Justice Bill is to see if we can
find some common ground.
My goodness we ought to be
able to find common ground
on just saying choke holds are
wrong.”
Wyden concluded by say-
ing that bipartisanship is about
working together on good
ideas, not working together
with bad ideas.
The example he provided
is his work with Republi-
can Sen. Mike Crapo from
Idaho and trying to transform
the PILT and SRS program
that are important for rural
communities.
“When he and I get together
to talk about priority business
for the communities in South-
east Oregon, we don’t talk
about Democrats or Republi-
cans. We talk about what it’s
going to take to get urban leg-
islators to support the ideas
important for our rural com-
munities,” Wyden said.
Marietta
Harrison
expressed concerned about
unemployment as a self-em-
ployed musician. She asked
what resources are available
and when to expect to get sup-
port for income losses due to
coronavirus.
Wyden said he wrote the
legislation that made the $250
billion available for the extra
unemployment benefits until
July 31 and the expanded
coverage. But the Oregon
Employment
Department,
which is making changes, is
responsible for getting bene-
fits out.
He added that he made sure
at the federal level that the
benefits are retroactive.
“Despite the incredible
frustration, and I can hear it
in your voice, that you hav-
en’t gotten the benefits yet,
they are retroactive,” Wyden
said. “You are gonna get them
back to the date that the pro-
gram began.”
The discussion continued
on the mentality of people
receiving unemployment ben-
efits during the pandemic.
“There’s been some people
who said, ‘You know, these
folks who are getting these
$600 a week, they really don’t
want to work,’” Wyden said.
He said he disagrees and
knows Oregonians want to
work and believe in the dig-
nity of work.
After July 31, Wyden
wants to find an approach that
works for the long term to tie
unemployment benefits to the
economic conditions on the
ground. When unemployment
is high, the benefits stay up,
but if it goes down, the bene-
fits go down with it.
A Grant County resident
said the switch to distance
learning highlighted the dis-
parity in broadband access
between urban and rural areas.
He asked if Wyden could
share his thoughts on plans for
federal legislation to provide
broadband everywhere.
Wyden said it is import-
ant to avoid an information
aristocracy where those who
are well off have access to
services where everybody in
small towns feel like they are
going back to dial-up days.
“We can’t have rural Amer-
icans and rural Oregonians in
the dark, period,” Wyden said.
The current programs
available to help are the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s
Reconnect program and the
Federal
Communications
Commission’s Rural Digital
program.
“We are available to help
with both of those, but my
vision is exactly what our
caller talked about,” Wyden
said. “We really need to knit
together a national strategy
that interconnects all Amer-
icans with access to decent
quality broadband.”
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Bonham added that
the special session should
address the deficit to make
the adjustments now instead
of making deeper cuts later.
Bonham said he doesn’t
feel like any of the sin-
gle issues during the ses-
sion will rise to the point
to where lawmakers may
walk out to deny a quorum
as happened in previous ses-
sions over cap and trade.
Findley said the special
session is closed to the pub-
lic, and he believes that is
wrong.
A common question
topic that was received over
42 times for the town hall
was on the issue of educa-
tion and the “let them play”
initiative, an initiative to
have the governor recon-
sider the restrictions on high
school sports.
Owens said school dis-
tricts will be able to build
their own plan under some
guidelines and recommen-
dations. Schools will have
the option to convene school
for in-class and online, or
online only.
Sen. Wyden discusses
unemployment and
working together during
virtual town hall
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